Four takeaways from House Democrats' forum on women's issues

Linda Slade of Norton Shores speaks at a forum on women's issues July 22 at Ross Park Elementary school in Norton Shores. The forum was held by the Michigan House Democrats' task force on Women's Health and Economic Security.Stephen Kloosterman/MLive.com

NORTON SHORES, MI – The Michigan House Democrats’ task force on Women’s Health and Economic Security held a presentation and question-and-answer session in Norton Shores Monday night, July 23.

Local representatives Marcia Hovey-Wright, D-Muskegon, and Collene Lamonte, D-Montague, are both members of the task force and led the event. Judy Krandjeff, the vice president for advocacy for the League of Women Voters of Michigan, also gave a presentation on the wage gap between men and women.

The House Democrats have a package of legislation aimed at pay equity. The package includes a bill by Hovey-Wright to make it a misdemeanor to pay similarly situated workers less on the basis of gender, and a bill by Lamonte to mandate that employers disclose similar employee’s pay so that people will know if they are being paid fairly. The bills are currently in the House Government Operations Committee.

Monday’s event is one of three the group hopes to hold across Michigan this year, with other events planned for Canton and Kalamazoo. “We’re just trying to hear what our constituents’ concerns are,” Hovey-Wright said.

Here are a few of the concerns raised by participants and the legislators:

1. Women still make less money than men. According to data presented by Krandjeff, women make only 77 cents for every dollar received by similarly employed men. In spite of the federal Equal Pay act, that’s only a slight improvement from 1963, when women made 63 cents compared to a man’s dollar, she said.

“It doesn’t help us as much as it could,” Krandjeff said.

2. An obstacle to equal wages is the lack of information about how much people make. Participants repeatedly discussed the fact that most employers don’t make public -- and often encourage employees not to discuss- - how much they’re being paid. It makes the wage discrimination hard to prove in many cases. Krandjeff passed out a worksheet showing what a person can do if they think they’re experiencing compensation discrimination.

3. Women don’t like talking about money. Part of the problem, according to Krandjeff and other participants, is that women sometimes shrink from asking for raises or asking their peers how much they are being paid.

“I never know what my parents made,” said Muskegon’s Cindy Broughton. She said that men might often talk about their pay, but “networks of women don’t have that ability.”

4. Girls should be encouraged to enter well-paying jobs. Lamonte, a former school teacher, said that in her experience, adolescent girls attach a certain stigma to being good at science and math. Linda Slade, of Norton Shores, agreed.

“My father didn’t want me to go into engineering,” Slade said. “I think we need to teach our children to be more independent.”